Tom Crewe and Isabella Hammad featured in the shortlists for the seven awards announced by the SoA

Tom Crewe’s The New Life (Chatto & Windus), Lorraine Wilson’s Mother Sea (Fairlight Books), and Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost (Jonathan Cape) are among the books featured in the shortlists for the awards that were announced today (Wednesday 22nd May) by The Society of Authors (SoA). 

The selection includes prose, poetry and children’s literature across seven prizes, comprising the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, the Betty Trask Prize, the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, and the Queen’s Knickers Award, as well as the McKitterick Prize, the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize, and the ADCI Literary Prize. The winners, to be announced on 20th June at Southwark Cathedral, will share a prize fund of over £140,000. Moreover, the winners of the Travelling Scholarships, Cholmondeley Awards, Eric Gregory Awards, and Somerset Maugham Awards will also be announced on the night.

Alongside Wilson, Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow’s All the Little Bird Hearts (Tinder Press, Headline Publishing Group) is in the running for the the ADCI Literary Prize. The award is given to a disabled or chronically ill writer, for an outstanding novel containing a disabled or chronically ill character, and has a total prize fund of £2,000. "The books we have chosen to celebrate this year are stealthy books; they sneak into one’s consciousness with the nous of stray cats, creeping along the walls until they emerge to rub against you," said Nii Ayikwei Parkes, who was on the judging panel this year. "Then, all of a sudden, their claws are in and you can’t forget them."

Meanwhile, the shortlist for the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, which is awarded for a short story by a writer who has had at least one short story accepted for publication, includes Naomi Wood’s "A/A/A/A/", and Alexandra Ye’s "This Story". Trahearne Falvey is also in the running in this category – which has a prize fund of £4,500 – for "The Staring Contest", while Edward Hogan and Hussani Abdulrahim are shortlisted for "Little Green Man" and "Arewa Boys", respectively. "It was a long and hard-fought process working our way down to these five outstanding examples of the form," said judge Judge Peter Hobbs, "which showcase the ways the short story can distil and contain whole lives and worlds."

Crewe is shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize for a first novel by a writer under 35, which has the largest prize fund of all the prizes announced today, with £26,200 to be awarded to the writers. He is joined by Rachel Connolly, in in the running for Lazy City (Canongate Books), and Nathan Munday with Whaling (Seren). "The shortlist this year includes several historical novels, and a few that take elements of classics – Moby Dick, Frankenstein — and make them into something new," commented judge Anjali Joseph.

Stephen Buoro is also featured on this shortlist, for The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa (Bloomsbury Circus), alongside C E McGill with Our Hideous Progeny (Doubleday), and Rachel Dawson, on the list for Neon Roses (John Murray). Moreover, Hammad is vying for the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize, which is awarded to a UK or Irish writer – or a writer currently resident in those countries – for a novel focusing on the experience of travel away from home. She is joined by Santanu Bhattacharya, shortlisted for One Small Voice (Fig Tree),

Cecile Pin with Wandering Souls (4th Estate), and Soula Emmanuel, on the list for Wild Geese (Footnote Press). "These books should be cherished for their social and political insights as well as for the splendour of their prose," judge Kerry Young said of the shortlisted titles. This award has a total prize fund of £2,750.

The shortlist for the McKitterick Prize for a first novel by a writer over 40 features Allan Radcliffe’s The Old Haunts (Fairlight Books), Aoife Fitzpatrick’s The Red Bird Sings (Virago), and Greg Jackson’s The Dimensions of a Cave (Granta). Wenyan Lu is also shortlisted in this award category, for The Funeral Cryer (Allen & Unwin), alongside Chidi Ebere, on the list for Now I Am Here (Picador), and Jacqueline Crooks for Fire Rush (Jonathan Cape). "Though hugely varied in subject matter and style, the writers on the shortlist all impressed me with the clarity of their creative vision and their narrative authority on the page," said Judge Rónán Hession of the shortlist for the prize, which has a prize fund of £10,000.

In addition, the Paul Torday Memorial Prize – awarded to a first novel by a writer over 60 – has a prize fund of £4,000, and includes a set of the collected works of British writer Paul Torday, who published his first novel at the age of 60. Fran Hill is on the shortlist for Cuckoo in the Nest (Legend Press), alongside Justine Gilbert for Daisy Chain (Claret Press), and Jacqueline Crooks for Fire Rush (Jonathan Cape). The final two writers shortlisted in this category are Michelene Wandor for Orfeo’s Last Act (Greenwich Exchange), and Hilary Taylor for Sea Defences (Eye Books). "I found the entries as a whole bursting with creative energy, wisdom and often humour," said judge Gaby Koppel. "Among them I found bold stylistic innovation, the reflection of different cultures and sensitivities and familiar events seen from fresh perspectives."

The final award for which the shortlist was announced today is the Queen’s Knickers Award for an original illustrated book for children aged zero to seven. It recognises books that "strike a quirky, new note and grab the attention of a child", and books featured include 5 Minute Nature Stories by Gabby Dawnay and Mona K (Magic Cat), and Luminous by Julia Kuo (Greystone Kids). Benjamin Zephaniah and Nila Aye are also on the list, for People Need People (Orchard Books), shortlisted alongside Jairo Buitrago and Rafael Yockteng, with Afterward, Everything Was Different (Aldana Libros), and Yoko Mori, on the shortlist for Teddy’s Midnight Adventure (Pushkin Children’s Books). Rachel Bright and Jim Field are also shortlisted in this category, for The Gecko and the Echo (Orchard Books), and are joined by Coralie Bickford-Smith, on the list for The Squirrel and the Lost Treasure (Particular Books).

The Queen’s Knickers Award has a total prize fund of £6,000, and judge Salomey Doku said of the shortlisted titles: "The books that made it onto the Queen’s Knickers shortlist all had a distinct appeal to us as judges in one way or another – whether it was in the message they conveyed, the quality of illustrations, or the timeless nature they possessed, each and every book earned its place on the list."